About 40 Northwestern students and two faculty members crowded into the Roberta Buffett Center for International and Comparative Studies on Monday to hear University President Morton Schapiro debate “Resolved, a liberal arts education is still worth it.”
Schapiro, who had just returned from watching Super Bowl XLV in Dallas, gave a 10-minute lecture before answering questions from students. The talk was sponsored by the NU Political Union.
Nick Ruge, co-president of the Political Union, said he was honored to have the president as the speaker because he is one of the most learned people on the topic at NU.
“This is something that, in this economy, kids who are majoring in liberal arts are wondering,” the Weinberg junior said. “I found it very fascinating. It opened my eyes to the moral, political and social benefits of higher education and liberal arts specifically.”
Schapiro discussed the value of a college education and the current state of higher education in liberal arts colleges in the U.S.
Most liberal arts colleges, with the exception of the top 15 to 20 schools such as Williams College, Pomona College and Swarthmore College, are becoming more and more pre-professional in response to the country’s economic state, he said. In general, liberal arts colleges are plummeting in enrollment as students worry that they will not find employment with degrees in religious studies or English.
Still, Schapiro said the humanities are a vital part of higher education.
“You have your last dollar, give it to philosophy, give it to history, give it to art history,” he said.
Weinberg sophomore Josh Noah said the lecture was fascinating, and that Schapiro’s academic background was relevant to the topic at hand.
“Labor economics seems to be a good field to be in when determining the value of college education,” he said.
Students asked questions on a wide range of topics, from the moral benefits of getting a liberal arts education to the possibility of establishing a living wage at NU.
Weinberg senior and former DAILY columnist Jordan Fein asked Schapiro why NU cannot pay some of their employees a living wage like Georgetown University and DePaul University do, to which Schapiro said it is not possible from an economic perspective.
“I really do fundamentally believe it would be a disaster,” he said. “The economics are so bad of the whole purpose that I could go on, I’m sorry, for a week.”
Ruge said that while he does prefer to keep debates focused on the topic being discussed, the Political Union is designed to be a civil forum for all students to talk about their opinions.
“President Schapiro responded congenially,” he said. “To hear him respond so collegiately, I was quite impressed with the exchange.”
Schapiro ended the discussion with his proposal of a new course curriculum for NU, which would include students taking three courses of classroom instruction per quarter and one course of experiential learning, such as working at a local clinic or for the Medill Innocence Project.
Ultimately, studying a liberal arts discipline may not be economically beneficial, but there are other advantages, he said.
“There’s a social interest in it,” he said. “It creates better citizens, more caring citizens.”
